The feature in telephone communications (either in wire-line systems or wireless systems) known as ‘caller id’ is well known and is available in virtually all major publicly accessible voice communication networks. Such a feature allows a called party to see the telephone number of the calling party allowing the called party to have the option as to whether to answer the call based on the phone number of the calling party. The called party, in essence, either knows who is calling and answers the call or not answer the call. Alternately, the called party does not recognize the telephone number of the person calling and will have to make the same decision. In the case where the called party does not recognize the telephone of the calling party, the called party mostly likely has access to various telephone databases and may attempt to identify the party or organization under which the phone number is listed.
Because of the ubiquitous nature of the caller id feature, a calling party has to take affirmative steps to mask his/her phone number for various privacy related reasons, for example. A calling party may not want others receiving his/her calls to document his/her telephone number. For many mobile devices, for example, a party may have the option to block his/her caller id information thus preventing his/her telephone number from being discerned by the called party. The called party, instead of seeing the phone number of the calling party, will simply see the word ‘blocked’ on his/her display while the phone is ringing. Arguably, this calling number blocking feature may achieve its intended purpose—preventing the called party from obtaining or detecting the phone number of the calling party—albeit in a very non-subtle manner. The called party may be inclined not to answer the call after noticing that the telephone number of the person calling is being blocked; that is, the called party may be wary of the call because the person making the call is hiding their identity. The assumptions made by the called party and the calling party in not answering a call and in blocking their telephone number may at times inadvertently prevent a telephone conversation from occurring when both parties would actually want to converse with each other.